Judith McCoy's neighbours will never look at a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich again after she tested out her prize-winning entry on them.

The housewife, from Gosforth, in Newcastle, won a Chronicle competition to find a potential new filling for bakers Greggs to stock by giving the old favourite a new twist of sweet chilli sauce.

She was one of three finalists who battled it out for the honour at Greggs' flagship Northumberland Street shop, in Newcastle.

The Chronicle teamed with the firm to give readers the chance to show off their culinary skills and more than 100 people took up the challenge.

The final three were Judith, Lisa Jackson, from Blaydon and Robert Tempest, of Lanchester.

The winner is likely to have their sandwich idea developed and sold by the top baker.

Such was the high standard of the final three - sweet and sour chicken with pineapple; tuna and sweet chilli stottie and the prawn with a twist stottie, that judges struggled to make a final decision.

Judith was delighted with her win and said she had thoroughly enjoyed taking part.

She added: "I am thrilled to have won. I have been practising various filling alternatives for weeks now, testing them on my family and neighbours so I'm sure they will be happy with my win too!"

Her tangy sarnie scored heavily with the judges - Greggs' regional managing director, Graham Randell and the Chronicle's sandwich expert, Peter Jeffrey. They had to decide on taste, originality and practicality of large scale production.

Mr Randell said: "In the end it was so difficult to choose between the final three that I had no option but to develop all three entries.

"It is this positive input from our customers that keeps our business fresh and we enjoy maintaining such a healthy relationship with Greggs customers.

"It was a thoroughly enjoyable event and I look forward to welcoming the contestants to our Gosforth bakery and seeing their designs developed further."

Peter added: "It really was difficult to judge as all the finalists produced a very tasty sandwich. I have no doubt that all three would prove to be very popular with Greggs' customers and I would like to congratulate all the finalists and thank everyone who took part."